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Disasters Undercut Millennium Development Goals |
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By Patricia Grogg*
The
social and economic impacts of natural disasters are increasing,
warn experts. In Cuba alone, hurricanes resulted in losses of 2.3
billion dollars in 2005.
HAVANA - If the countries of Latin America
and the Caribbean don't work on reducing the risks of natural disasters
they will fail to meet the United Nation Millennium Developent Goals,
warned international experts at the VII International Congress on
Disasters, in Havana.
"We have made progress in reducing mortality, but the number of
people affected and the economic losses associated with cataclysms
grows," said Francisco Arias, acting coordinator of the UN system
in Cuba, in an address to disaster experts from 27 countries attending
the Jun. 13-16 congress.
From 1970 to 1999 there were some 900 disasters in the Americas,
with an annual costs ranging from 700 million to 3.0 billion dollars,
148 million people directly affected and eight million homes destroyed,
among other losses.
In 2005, the direct and indirect impacts on Cuba of hurricanes Dennis,
Wilma and Rita cost the Caribbean island more than 2.3 billion dollars,
according to official estimates. The year before, hurricane Ivan
thrashed the tiny island of Granada, leaving behind 889 million
dollars in losses -- more than double that country's gross domestic
product.
"Progress in development is destroyed, the economy tumbles and poverty
increases. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) believes
that if we don't take into account disaster reduction we will not
achieve the development goals proposed for 2015," Arias added.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), approved by the UN
General Assembly in New York in 2000, are: halve the proportion
of people (based on 1990 numbers) living in poverty and halve the
number of people suffering from hunger; achieve universal primary
education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality by two-thirds
and maternal mortality by three-quarters; fight the spread of HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other major diseases; ensure environmental sustainability;
and create a global North-South partnership for development.
"The impact of the disasters slows down progress. What could be
invested in education and health has to be spent on reconstruction,"
Linda Zilbert, an expert with the UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention
and Recovery, told Tierramérica.
Studies by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) indicate
that the increase in environmental degradation and urban poverty
over the last few decades has deepened the vulnerability of the
Latin American and Caribbean population, exposed to greater suffering
from the impact of hurricanes, earthquakes or flooding.
This reality suggests the need to incorporate risk prevention into
sustainable development efforts, with local and community participation,
and the involvement of non-governmental organizations and citizens'
groups.
Development should diminish risk through a reduction of social,
economic and environmental vulnerability of the threatened populations
and territories, stressed UNEP in a 2003 report.
According to Zilbert there is a direct relationship between the
dangers of disaster and development. "If disasters occur it's because
there are risk conditions and they must be reduced," said the expert,
who presented a UNDP project to compile experiences in the area,
beginning with the Andean countries and extending to the Caribbean.
In this respect, Zilbert and other UN officials attending the congress
agreed that "human intervention" can increase the danger of catastrophe.
"There are countries with areas that flood every year, but they
continue to build there," said Arias, UN representative in Cuba
for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Zilbert noted that it is easier to think that the "enemy" is nature
itself, instead of criticizing the existing models for development.
"Disasters have a natural element, but there is also an element
linked to the conditions in which we live," she said.
For the past couple years UNDP has been working on an intercultural
network amongst the Caribbean nations to systematize, exchange and
disseminate initiatives on building early warning systems, disaster
and prevention training, and housing construction, and other efforts.
"The goal is to convert all of this into useful tools for the region,"
Zilbert said. But she also underscored that risk management and
adaptation measures imply a commitment to transforming the conditions
that make communities vulnerable to disaster, and the need to work
together in this area.
"If we don't work in an integrated way, the risk conditions will
not be reduced. If best practices and learned lessons don't serve
to improve capacity and generate knowledge, we haven't made any
progress," she concluded.
* Patricia Grogg is an IPS correspondent
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